The most Profitable Trade Run is....

    When starting off, this is my method of getting my cash reserves up as fast as I know how (using legal means) When I start, I just kill a few liberty cops/navy until I am "just" neutral with the Rougues, after that it´s time to start earning money. BTW when you are neutral with Rougues, the Outcasts, Xenos & Hackers leave you alone too, so you can sell your shields/guns to fill up & max out the profit. Seeing as you don´t have a "load" of cash at the start, and are stuck in e starflier, I buy Boron on Pittsburgh (120), then go to Sheffield Station (Manchester via Magellan) and sell for 600. Polymers - Sheffield Station -> LA (Buy a Rhino, forget about weapons) Boron - LA -> Sheffield Station Polymers - Sheffield Station -> Mactan Base (buy a Dromedary, forget about weapons) -> LA Boron - LA -> Sheffield Station (** Buy weapons now, cause Corsairs/Mollys still don´t like you yet) Light Weapons - Sheffield Station -> New London Luxury food - New London -> LA etc, etc after that. Inside of ~3 hours you should have enough to buy any ship you want.

    Boron - Planet Los Angeles -> Sheffield Station Buying at $167/- per unit Selling at $600/- per unit Rhino 80 cargo units Initial Cargo Investment = $13,360/- (dun worry, this reserve builds up quickly) Net Profit = $34,640/- per trip I checked it out. Yup, this trade route is great for beginners. Easily accessible, fast turnaround time, low investment and good returns even with a Rhino. The pirates encountered in this trade route are Lane Hackers/Liberty Rouges (California) and Outcasts (Magellan). If you do not wish to kill cops, a little Xenos blasting at Detroit Munitions Depot will fix the Liberty Rouges and Outcasts reputation to juz under attack on sight (which is good enuff to keep them off your back when using this trade route). Thanks to Jaabaa for the hot tip!

    Best route once I hit mid level. Manhattan to New Tokyo: Luxury Consumer Goods New Tokyo to New London: Engine Components New London to Manhattan: Luxury Food Flying a Falcon I make around $150K per cycle. With a Humpback or Dromedary: 4 to 5 times that. I can do the run in less than 45 minutes. I know that there are other routes that are a little quicker, but I do enjoy this route.

    The BEST profit to make is to buy some diamond into solarius station at the price of 214 per unit and sell the diamond at planet new tokyo at the price of 1600 per unit (but it take too long for me (38-45 waipoint))

    The BEST profit is to buy Alien Orgs on Ruiz Base @ 100, & sell on Cali Minor @ 2000, I did that in a dromedary and only ~10 organisms died enroute. ~500,000 profit ! On the New London->Manhattan route with "Luxury Food", sell it @ Denver for 1360, and buy your luxury consumer goods for new Tokyo there, that way you net 330k on the food run, and the luxury goods are only $80 more expensive to buy.

    Police/Navy scanning is just like being jumped by a neutral, they tell you to drop your cargo. If you can dock before the time limit for a response runs out, yes. Otherwise, the planet is hostile & you can´t dock.

    Surprised no-one else has mentioned this one: Gas Miner Naha to Kyoto Base, hauling H-Fuel to Kyoto and bringing water back (200/unit profit on H-Fuel, 55/unit on water, 63750 profit per round trip). One jump, and every leg is within docking range so you can do it in your sleep and in only a few minutes per trip. No hostiles, either. It may not be the highest profit per run, but the runs are so fast you can make it up in volume --Dave

    I´ve found a really easy way to make money is to rotate between the capitals. Get Luxury Consumer Goods at Manhattan and sell them in New Berlin. Buy Diamonds there and sell them in New Tokyo. Buy Engine Parts there and sell them in New London. Then buy Luxury Foods there and sell them in Manhattan. Just repeat the process and you´ll be rolling in cash. The other nice thing is, the routes tend to be well-patrolled, so it´s fairly low risk. It´s all legal, too, but you´ll get around $1000 per good per route, except for the Manhattan-New Berlin one. The most problem I have is with Outcasts on the New Tokyo-New London route, but if you´re neutral with them it´s a breeze.

    Am I the only idiot taking Engine Components from Honshu to Mactan Base? It takes freakin´ forever but I can read the forums on a laptop while I travel ;-) Engine Components @ Honshu are 150, sell at Mactan Base for 1424. That makes 275 * 1274 = 350350 profit. Not bad for a one way trip. Now what should I bring back? Of course you´ll need about 50000 to do it (to buy the parts and the shield batteries ;-) Ok, I just timed it and it took me 40 minutes (yikes!). Using the Freelancer Cargo Computer 1.1.07 (man is that cool!!!), I decided to hit Pueblo Station on the way back and pick up Jump Gate / Trade Lane Parts for 140 to sell at 1120 at Chugoku Gate Construction. This will give me another 269500 profit. Theis trip takes about 40 minutes, too. So the whole trip takes me a while (1.5 hours?), but I end up with an exta 619500, which should be enough to outfit my ship before Mission 8 ;-) Yeeehaawwwww! Edited by - lex3001 on 02-04-2003 07:16:54 Edited by - lex3001 on 03-04-2003 04:30:49

    I have a great Early game route which takes place in the Kusari empire so you have no enemies when you first get there. Not entirly sure on the planets(one is honshu I know for sure). Basically you go from honshu to ethier dashima station or Junyo. It is safe and quick and you can make just under 100k with a humpback per round trip. Not very helpful I know but my notes are not the best in the best condition(I have calculatons on trade routes and ship/weapon prices all over the place)